From Measurement to Organization: A Philosophical Scheme for the History of the Concept of Heredity

Jean Gayon (1, 2)

1 REHSEIS (UMR_7596) - Recherches Epistémologiques et Historiques sur les Sciences Exactes et les Institutions Scientifiques
2 IHPST - Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques

This paper proposes a general scheme for the historical analysis of the concept of heredity covering the last one and a half centuries. During this period heredity became a major biological concept that was purposefully subjected to experimental and quantitative methods of investigation. The conclusions drawn here are twofold. First, there were basically two alternative quantitative approaches to heredity: Either treat heredity in terms of a magnitude similar to the concepts of the physical sciences, or treat it as a material structure. After some initial pending and leaning toward the first alternative, biologists became increasingly committed to the second alternative. Second, I show that the three major phases in the history of the science of heredity (biometry, Mendelian genetics, and molecular genetics) corresponded to three quasi-explicit conceptions of the cognitive status of scientific theories, namely: phenomenalism, instrumentalism and realism. This periodization does not pretend to account for the entire complexity of the history of biological conceptions of heredity. These should be taken, rather, as ideal types that shed some light on important philosophical aspects of the broad history of the science of heredity.

Mots clés: heredity

Domaines: Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Jean Gayon. From Measurement to Organization: A Philosophical Scheme for the History of the Concept of Heredity. Peter Beurton, Raphael Falk, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, eds. The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution: Historical and Epistemological Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, pp.69-90, 2001, Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology. ⟨halshs-00775526⟩